What is S1000D?
Building what is known as a complex system often involves several manufacturers making components that are finally assembled by a system integrator. This is common in the aerospace, defense, aeronautics and nuclear industries and many others.
Keeping these systems going over a life cycle that can regularly exceed 20 to 30 years is a major challenge, both commercially and operationally. As a result, the technical information and knowledge that maintenance documentation provides is directly associated with quality and durability, notions that are essential when talking about a complex system.
The documentation process, which links all the steps in producing maintenance documentation, is subject to standards that are specific to the industries mentioned above. The main purpose of these standards is to streamline the documentation process by structuring technical information in a way that ensures its relevance and employability.
Maintenance, a fully-fledged job in its own right, has its own documentation standard, the ASD S1000D, which was created to ensure interoperability in the European defense sector. There are other standards, which are specific to maintenance in operational conditions, that round it off, such as S2000M (spares provisioning), S3000L (logistic support), S4000P (scheduled maintenance), or S5000F (in-service feedback).
Basically, S1000D splits the content up, for use in different and complementary documents: an action performed on an element corresponds to a block of information that includes a description of the element, a description of the action, any necessary material and, if necessary, any consumables. We place all this information in a table with several entries that forms the outline of the content collection, where each box contains a block of information called the Data Module, which can be reused in several publications with a different layout.
The documentation standard also has the task of making simple what is complex to ensure the clarity of the information, and to eliminate any risk or need for interpretation by maintenance operators. In fact, the objective is to reduce the margins of error, and increase the safety and lifetime of the systems.
Why write in S1000D?
It’s important to say that despite all the advantages of a documentation standard such as S1000D, it brings with it its share of constraints. This standard is above all specific to certain sectors of activity and its implementation can be complex at the beginning.
However, having said that, we mustn’t forget the advantages, which could well change people’s minds.
Sure, S1000D imposes many rules, but it does harmonize processes. It is true that it is specific to maintenance documentation, but it does its job so well. Its structure lets you change and update content without impacting the whole. S1000D is based on a free data schema, XML. This format provides great freedom of use, simplifying web development and cross-media publishing.
Writing in XML is also an excellent way to make authoring more collaborative, using the right tools.
Finally, writing your documentation in S1000D is also a way to guarantee your clients relevant and efficient access to technical information. Its quality will undoubtedly be a differentiating factor, and keeping it up to date is an important part of customer relations.
Why follow a S1000D training?
After singing the praises of the S1000D for simplifying maintenance documentation, we also need to look at its implementation, which comes later.
Implementing a S1000D project meets the clear need for a structured approach to technical documentation, as opposed to traditional documentation, which is often unmanageable in a global context. Getting the necessary knowledge demands comprehensive and accurate support from experienced professionals. Training is therefore an essential precondition.
What’s more, even for people who have received training, keeping up to date with technical developments in the documentation market ensures that companies have the experts they need to steer projects and evangelize their teams internally.
Why train with 4D CONCEPT?
4D CONCEPT is above all an expert in technical documentation in S1000D, ATA and DITA documentation standards. Our trainers, now sharing their knowledge, are consultants who use these standards every day and work for the large groups that apply them (such as Airbus, Naval Group, Safran, Thales).
They are all operational staff who help our clients set up content collections and structured documentation projects in a standardized environment.
Training with 4D CONCEPT can provide answers to all the problems linked to your technical documentation projects, in addition to support after the training sessions.
Finally, 4D CONCEPT is the publisher of the ADAM, software suite, which has become a reference in the field of S1000D
What is the course content?
To be as complete as possible, the training course takes three days and alternates theory and hands-on exercises. Our goal is to make our trainees operational by giving them the maximum of the “essentials” to manage a structured documentation project in standard S1000D. The different concepts (modularity, applicability, CIR, publication, etc.) are put into practice to ensure greater understanding.
The training program ranges from fundamentals, such as the principles of XML, to the writing of Data Modules and the implementation of a standardized CSDB (Common Source Data Base). Our trainers adapt the course to the specific expectations and problems of each trainee, to better cater for the specificities of each company.
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